Department for Education

National Curriculum Tests: Sign Language

lord bruce of bennachie: To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to offering British Sign Language as a language choice for examination in the national curriculum.

lord agnew of oulton: Although there are no plans to introduce any new GCSEs in this Parliament, the government is open to considering a proposal for a British Sign Language (BSL) GCSE for possible introduction in the longer term. We have indicated this to Signature, the awarding organisation proposing to develop a GCSE in BSL, and the National Deaf Children’s Society. Any new GCSE would need to meet the rigorous expectations for subject content, which are set by the department. It would also need to meet the expectations for assessment and regulatory requirements, which are set by Ofqual, the independent qualifications regulator. The department and Ofqual will consider carefully any proposals put forward in due course.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Literacy

lord hogan-howe: To ask Her Majesty's Government whatestimate they have made of the level of illiteracy among the prison population in England and Wales over the last three years; and how those figures have been affected by the literacy programme organised by HM Prison Service.

lord keen of elie: On 24 May, we published a ground-breaking Education and Employment strategy for our prisons. The strategy sets out how we will transform our approaches to helping prisoners develop their skills and thereby secure and sustain employment after they leave custody. The government introduced mandatory testing of prisoners’ levels of maths and English in prisons in England in August 2014. Prisoners are tested on reception to custody and, since 1 August 2017, we also test prisoners when they move between establishments and on release.The table below sets out data on assessed levels of English on reception for prisoners in custody in England. Academic year:2014/152015/162016/17 Number%Number%Number%Education assessments in English72,680 62,230 54,170 of which …  Entry Level 15,7607.9%4,6207.4%4,3508.0%Entry Level 29,63013.2%9,77015.7%8,44015.6%Entry Level 321,62029.7%21,05033.8%16,61030.7%Level 125,85035.6%18,56029.8%17,36032.0%Level 29,34012.9%6,34010.2%5,83010.8%Not known8901.2%2,4103.9%2,1103.9% Entry Level 3 would be the level expected of an 11-year old: in the 2016/17 academic year, 54% of prisoners were at or below that level in English. We are empowering governors, giving them the power to tailor education and training to the needs of their prisoners by putting in place new prison education contracts that will come into effect from April 2019. Under these new arrangements, we will be collecting the data needed to allow us to judge the success of our learning programmes more effectively in terms of progress. We have put in place a core common curriculum, focused on the underpinning basic skills of maths and English, which will underpin the new education contracts. We have selected the Awarding Organisations whose qualifications will be used exclusively in these subjects so that those starting a course at one prison can bank and build on their progress if they move elsewhere.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

EURATOM

lord taylor of warwick: To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress theyhave made in setting up a replacement regulatory body for Euratom; and whether this will be set up before the UK leaves the EU.

lord henley: Nuclear safety and security in the UK are currently regulated by the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and these arrangements will continue. When Euratom safeguards arrangements no longer apply to the UK, the ONR will regulate safeguards in the UK. The Government has made significant progress in our preparations to leave Euratom, to ensure a domestic nuclear safeguards regime can be in place from day one of exit. The Office for Nuclear Regulation is confident that they will have in place the IT system and safeguards inspectors needed to ensure the UK continues to meet international obligations when we leave Euratom.